Perhaps Obi shouldn't be leaving little anonymous notes in random places, nor should he be doing so to Mitsuhide of all people. But Obi got a little bored, and why not spice things up? And Obi hasn't been caught yet, as he leaves little letters, some just random notes like letters from a long forgotten friend or once a partial grocery list or letters from a secret admirer. He writes each of them in a different handwriting, and so far, he hasn't ran out of ideas.
Especially as Mitsuhide fumbles through asking Kiki about said letters, face pink, and as Kiki answers that she has no idea about them. And Obi figures Mitsuhide could use be shaken up a little.
In fact, on a particularly boring night, Obi finds a wildflower in the woods and ties it up with a particularly reminscient letter. And leaves it on Mitsuhide's window sill. Obi probably shouldn't be doing this, but it gives him something to occupy his time with, and besides he might just leave one day, and no harm would come of it.
And Mitsuhide has the sweetness that could overcome the meanest soul, because later on, Obi notices that Mitsuhide has put the flower into a vase with water. He stops asking about the disconnected letters, and Obi wonders if he's gotten used to them.
So, he writes one in Torou's name, matching her handwriting almost perfectly, something along the lines of remember when we met? And a bit of a flirtatious line or two for good measure.
That gives Mitsuhide such a start, that Obi has to laugh when he sees Mitsuhide looking over his shoulders like an assassin is trying to find him in order to flirt with him.
And Shirayuki catches on.
"What did you do, Obi?" She gives him such a look, that Obi startles out of his humor.
"Why do you ask, Miss?" He's trying to be quick on his feet anyway.
"You're laughing, and Mitsuhide looks scared."
"He's just paranoid." Obi shrugs.
"Of what?" And with the stare she levels at him, Obi finds himself answering.
"I wrote him a letter, pretending to be someone else."
"Apologize." She is insistent, so Obi sits down later on to scribble out an apology or something akin to it.
Settles on a, 'I'm sorry. I think my letter went to the wrong person.' No other explanation, just to drop it off. Obi's lost one game; what will be his next one?
So, Obi wonders if he can still be convincing on the little things, as he goes about his day. And wonders if it's gotten too relaxed in the pharmacy.
So, he sneaks off and bakes a cake, when it seems like nothing else is going on, frosting it carefully, and writing on it in his admittingly messy scrawl, especially as he rushes through it.
"Higata?" Obi asks during a lull in the herbalism.
"Yes?" He looks up, a little confused, but somewhat comfortable with Obi around just the same.
"Happy Birthday." Obi grins, letting the pharmacy break out into an "It's your birthday?", "How did I forget?", "You should have told us!" And Higata's face goes pink, and his cool is temporarily gone as he tries to fumble through, no, not yet.
And Obi hurries away in the brief chaos to bring in the cake, and the work day is officially on hold, as everyone pauses to celebrate someone's birthday whose birthday it really isn't. Higata even gets a day off in the mix, and he can't quite wiggle out of it not being his birthday quite yet.
It maybe isn't what Obi should be doing, but he's rather impressed it worked. Surely, Garack had paperwork somewhere with Higata's actual birthday on it. But maybe she didn't or maybe she was just excited for a chance to relax.
"Obi, what made you think it was my birthday?" Higata sighed as he gathered up his stuff to presumably go home since his shift ended a little early.
"I didn't."
Higata sighed, "I didn't need a day off though or the cake; if you wanted to celebrate it, could you have picked a different day?"
"What's wrong with today?" Obi's a little bit amused, but it does give Higata a little bit of a break, so it shouldn't be too bad.
"I told Chief my birthday already." He sighed, "It's in a few months. You don't have to bake a cake."
"Was it that bad?"
"No, no." Higata's gotten a little bit flustered again, and his need to be polite is winning over his own stubbornness with this one, "It tasted good."
"Just good?" Obi wonders just what he can get the pharmacist to say.
"Better than good." Higata still looks ready to flee or more ready to flee than he had beforehand.
"Sorry my cake wasn't great."
"It was. It was." And Higata has completely given up.
"Really?"
"Yeah." Higata looks more than a little embarrassed as he finally manages to say a muffled goodbye and hurry off.
The cake wasn't Obi's best work, but the fact that Garack went along with it made Obi wonder just how badly she'd wanted a break.
Maybe next week, he could convince them Ryuu was another year older? Though Ryuu might react a little differently than Higata did. Perhaps Obi should just try to help out in the pharmacy after all this? Nah, it's a little fun to see what happens when he shakes things up.
